Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Local Folder subfolders not shown in menu TB 78.12.0

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by lovetb

more options

Opening Thunderbird today the inbox was receiving mail and contained its history. Same for Trash folder. The Local Folder subfolders were not shown. The C: .../Profiles location on my Win10 computer shows two xx.default folders. One is dated today (and is the one being used by TB), and the second is dated 2017. I don't want to make a fatal error that loses my subfolders. Will deleting the new default profile solve my problem or is there another fix?

Opening Thunderbird today the inbox was receiving mail and contained its history. Same for Trash folder. The Local Folder subfolders were not shown. The C: .../Profiles location on my Win10 computer shows two xx.default folders. One is dated today (and is the one being used by TB), and the second is dated 2017. I don't want to make a fatal error that loses my subfolders. Will deleting the new default profile solve my problem or is there another fix?

All Replies (6)

more options

In the profile that is used by TB, Help/Troubleshooting, Profile Folder, Open Folder, close TB, open the Mail/Local Folders location. Do you see the mbox files, the large files with no extension, named after folders? If you do, delete the .msf files with the same names as the mbox files, restart TB, and see if the Local Folders subfolders appear.

more options

Sorry, I've turned on Hidden Items in my IE window and there are no mbox files in the profile that TB is using. Are there other options?

more options

If there are no mbox files in the Mail/Local Folders location, then there is nothing with any mail content. If you don't have a recent backup, you can copy mbox files from the other profile folder to Mail/Local Folders in the active profile, then restart TB and see if they appear under Local Folders in the Folder Pane.

more options

Thanks sfhowes, but using the local folders from the older profile dated 2017 probably won't work. That version has s short list of subfolders, none which match the current local folder list. Does this mean that the current profile folder was somehow deleted and a new one dated Aug. 5 was created when I launched Thunderbird?

more options

Profiles aren't normally deleted except through manual direction, and if a new profile is created after a program update, it has a different name from the existing profiles. If the mbox files (folders) don't exist on the local computer in some profile folder, I can't explain why they disappeared. Look through all the profiles in ...Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles.

more options

Thanks sfhowes. The mbox files are not in either of the two profiles.. Also, just noticed that I have nothing prior to June 8 in my Inbox. The Sent files go back to 2020. My Godaddy webmail inbox shows the same.